Programme note for "Roy Hart Theatre - preverbal" 1972
"Without doubt this is a theatre rooted in a philosophy - that of the synthesis of opposites: therefore this is acting not in the sense of 'illusion', but of containing the overflowing cup of God "and" Devil. In "and" the human voices are used as the muscles of their souls. Roy Hart did not invent the 8 octave vocal range - he is an instrument in making conscious what has always existed: that is the incredible human capacity for suffering, love, murder, hate, jealousy, innocence, madness. This 'unchained' voice could be called the audible expression of the Jungian Archetypes: of the opposing forces within each person. Roy Hart Theatre are working with conscious schizophrenia: schizophrenia being the cancer of the psyche. This work was first conceived by an individual, Alfred Wolfsohn, a German Jew, who heard the spectrum of sounds in the screams of a dying soldier in World War 1, and devoted his life to uncovering and understanding these unexplored human sounds consciously. He saw that the voice was a way through which all aspects of an individual could be developed. It is a direct attack on the imbalance of the body chemistry. An attempt to give substance to the void between the cry of birth and the screams of death - to join the gap between head and body, male and female, Hitler and Jew. Roy Hart led this work after Wolfsohn's death, gradually discovering that a conscious relationship to self eventually manifests itself externally, transforming itself from a therapeutic to an artistic process. Roy Hart Theatre have not set out to change society, but to change themselves, biologically, with the aim of ultimately becoming "normal". They have, over 25 years, developed into a small society whose way of life is total theatre, and their public performances are the artistic results of this life. "and" is a profoundly obvious statement of humanity. This performance may be seen as a link between the lost unity of body and mind."
............................................................................................................................................................by ROY HART
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